GM has announced a new driver assessment program through OnStar - that will offer feedback on how you drive -

GM has announced a new driver assessment program through OnStar - that will offer feedback on how you drive - 

GM has announced a new driver assessment program through its subscription-based OnStar service that can offer feedback on how you drive. Think you don't need someone watching over your shoulder and critiquing your every move behind the wheel? Then maybe the program's potential insurance discount through Progressive will persuade you.  OnStar customers will soon be able to enroll in the new driver assessment program, which is exactly what it sounds like. Those who partake in the service will have their driving performance evaluated for a total of 90 days, and after completing the evaluation period, they'll receive a detailed driving assessment. The assessment will reportedly reveal important driving metrics, which will also be compared against those of other anonymous enrolled customers. Based on the individual assessment characteristics, OnStar will be able to provide driving tips. If the driver gives the OK, the assessment will be sent to Progressive Insurance, and depending on driver performance, customers may be able to receive a discount with the insurance company. GM also makes it a point to say that driver data will only be shared if the customer gives consent. Giving customers a detailed assessment of their driving habits is aimed to help people better understand how they drive and how they can become a better driver. An OnStar representative told us there is also no penalty for Progressive customers who receive a less-than-desirable score. “Providing drivers with feedback benefits consumers by making them more aware of their driving behavior, saving them money and keeping the roads safer," said Dave Pratt, general manager of usage-based insurance at Progressive, in a release. The assessment program is expected to be available for all 2016 GM models, most 2015 models, and some 2013 and 2014 models starting this summer.

Read more - 
http://wot.motortrend.com/1501_gm_onstar_to_monitor_driving_habits_for_possible_insurance_discounts.html

FedEx driver accused of Stealing Puppies off front porch -

FedEx driver accused of Stealing Puppies off front porch - 

Usually when a delivery truck driver stops at your house, they’re dropping something off.


But one Houston family says they have proof a FedEx driver tried to take two French Bulldog puppies off the front porch, while the family was home.

In footage recorded Thursday afternoon, a FedEx driver stops his truck on the driveway of the Correa family home, as puppies Bruno and Sheila play in front of the house.

The driver calls to the puppies, and the family says he spends over 10 minutes trying to corral them into his truck.

“He put both puppies in his car then he just went somewhere with the puppies,” owner Savannah Correa told KPRC-TV News in Houston.

At one point, one of the puppies escapes from the truck, and the driver follows her all the way up to the front porch of the home to retrieve her.

“He knew somebody was home, all the trucks out there, [and] the door was cracked. He knew we were home,” Armando Correa said.

Later that night, the family got a call from a vet clinic saying someone had dropped off their dogs after finding them wandering the streets.

The two dogs, which Fox 10 in Arizona reports are valued at over $2,500 each, are reported to be in good health despite being out in the cold night.

“I think there would have been emotional trauma had they been separated because it’s apparent they need each other,” Dr. John Gregory of Kirkwood Veterinary Hospital told local reporters.

Both FedEx and the Harris County Sheriff’s Department are launching investigations into the family’s allegations.

Meanwhile, the driver says he was only trying to return the two dogs to their rightful owner, after discovering them playing far from any home.

However, the family isn’t convinced.

“When I saw that FedEx truck pull in, and that guy got out and started calling my dogs. I was like, wait a minute: what’s going on here?” Armando Correa said.

Read more - 

http://globalnews.ca/news/1765131/watch-fedex-driver-accused-of-stealing-puppies-off-front-porch/

TWELVE DEAD at Paris Magazine Charlie Hebdo Headquarters – OVER THESE OFFENSIVE CARTOONS -

TWELVE DEAD at Paris Magazine Charlie Hebdo Headquarters – OVER THESE OFFENSIVE CARTOONS - 

Gun Attack on French Magazine Charlie Hebdo – 12 Dead!
Charlie Hebdo was under threat for years after mocking Islam in previous issues.

The proper response to today’s tragic events should be for EVERY publication on the planet to print depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

If you don't want to see depictions of the Prophet Muhammad - then leave this page now - 











It is called Free Speech - STAND UP FOR IT

Police: Circus dyed dogs to pass off as pandas - and charging to have pictures taken with them -

Police: Circus dyed dogs to pass off as pandas - and charging to have pictures taken with them - 

Police in northern Italy announced they seized two chow-chow dogs from a circus that had dyed the canines' hair in an attempt to pass them off as pandas.
Environmental police said they visited the circus Friday in Brescia and discovered officials were charging children to have their pictures taken with two "pandas" that were actually chow-chow dogs with a black-and-white dye job.

Investigators said the dogs, a male and a female, appeared to be in good health, but had unusually watery eyes that likely resulted from being exposed to constant camera flashes.

Police said the owner of the circus told customers who were suspicious of the "pandas" that the animals were half-panda, half-dog hybrids.

The circus owner, whose name was not released, is facing charges of animal abuse and defrauding customers. Charges could also stem from false information on the animals' passports, as police said the dogs are six months younger than claimed in documents.

Read more: - 
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/12/23/Police-Circus-dyed-dogs-to-pass-off-as-pandas/7081419343667/

Watch BBC journalist as he got high after getting too close to a stack of burning drugs - and can't complete report -

Watch BBC journalist as he got high after getting too close to a stack of burning drugs - and can't complete report -

The War on Drugs Just Got Even More Vile: Police to Begin Inspecting Your Poop, Seriously - Sewage epidemiology -

The War on Drugs Just Got Even More Vile: Police to Begin Inspecting Your Poop, Seriously - Sewage epidemiology - 

As the wasteful, immoral war on drugs continues in police states around the world, authorities are always looking for ways to track the use of “illicit” drugs. It’s the intelligence aspect of their war, and some of the methods literally reek. Introducing “sewage epidemiology,” coming soon to a community near you.

Sewage epidemiology is a rapidly expanding field that can provide information on illicit drug usage in communities, based on the measured concentrations in samples from wastewater treatment plants.
According to the American Chemical Society’s report:

The war on drugs could get a boost with a new method that analyzes sewage to track levels of illicit drug use in local communities in real time. The new study, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S., was published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology and could help law enforcement identify new drug hot spots and monitor whether anti-drug measures are working.
The thought of authorities slogging through the sludge may be comical, but it represents another example of big brother using our money to monitor our behavior. Drug consumption is a non-violent act upon oneself. The drug trade is made violent in a black market under government prohibition.

What is the rationale behind attempts at drug eradication and criminalization? It provides a means for government to assert power; it enriches the prison industry and the jackboot industry and politicians. Take these away and there is no logic to the war on drugs.

Supply is consistently available to meet demand, despite massive amounts of money and effort directed at eradicating supply and criminalizing demand.

Instead of learning from this history, however, the state continues its meaningless pursuit by turning to things such as sewage epidemiology. While some European countries put this technology to good use by monitoring sewage for environmental toxins, in the U.S. it will be used to repress its citizens.

Most information on drug use is gathered by the state through surveys, crime statistics, and drug seizures. Analyzing our bodily waste will “help law enforcement identify new drug hot spots.”

After all, they have to find reasons to use all that fancy new military gear.

Read more -

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/war-drugs-police-inspecting-poop/

Dog Shoots Man -

Dog Shoots Man - 

Stop trying to teach your old dog new tricks, and teach yourself some gun safety!

A Wyoming man is recovering in the hospital after his dog accidentally shot him. In a phone interview on Thursday, Johnson County Sheriff Steve Kozisek confirmed that Richard L. Fipps, 46, was hospitalized Monday after his dog stepped on a loaded rifle in the bed of his pickup truck and accidentally fired it. The rifle's safety was off, Kozisek said.

According to Big Horn Mountain Radio, Fipps was removing snow chains from his truck when he was shot in the left arm.

"The rifle was loaded and in the bed of the truck [with some other gear], and the dog hopped up there and either stepped on it or caused something to move and set it off," Kozisek told the Huffington Post.

Fipps transported to Sheridan Memorial Hospital via ambulance. His condition was not released, but his injuries were not life threatening, according to Big Horn Mountain Radio.

Kozisek said that the accident could have easily been prevented, had the gun not been loaded.

"Carrying a loaded rifle in a truck is never a good idea, safety on or safety off," Kozisek said.

The sheriff, who has worked in law enforcement for 42 years, said he'd never seen a case where a dog shot a man. 

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/18/dog-shoots-man-wyoming_n_6348650.html

Wristband notices when you fall asleep, records your TV show... -

Wristband notices when you fall asleep, records your TV show... - 



Wearable technology is great, but so much of it is obsessed with getting you fit. Apps can track your heartbeat, encourage you to hit the gym, and remind you just how many calories were in that last donut. But what about a product designed for more relaxed individuals?

Wouldn't it be helpful, say, if a wristband could tell if you doze off while watching the TV, then automatically record the rest of the show?

SEE ALSO: The rise of the 'quantified self'

As it happens, two young tech prodigies have created exactly that. KipstR was developed by teenagers Ryan Oliver, 15, and Jonathan Kingsley, 14, students at Manchester Creative Studio, in conjunction with TV and broadband provider Virgin Media.

The pair have come up with a 3D-printed wristband that uses a pulse oximeter, a clinical device for diagnosing sleep disorders, to sense when the user has drifted off. The KipstR band then mimics the user's TiVo remote to pause and record the TV show that was playing.

Read more - 

http://mashable.com/2014/12/18/wristband-records-tv/

When advertising your business on your Truck goes Bad - Texas plumber's truck ends up in Syrian war - mounted with guns -

When advertising your business on your Truck goes Bad - Texas plumber's truck ends up in Syrian war - mounted with guns - 

A Texas plumber has been receiving threats after a photo emerged of Islamic extremists in Syria firing a high-powered gun from the bed of his old pickup, which still bears his company's logo on the door.

An extremist group, Ansar al-Deen Front, posted the photo of its fighters aboard the Ford F-250 sometime on Monday. That prompted a flood of calls to Mark Oberholtzer, who owns Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, and has nothing to do with Syria's bloody civil war.

"How it ended up in Syria, I'll never know," Oberholtzer told The Galveston Daily News.

The photograph spread online and Oberholtzer told the paper that he traded in the truck three years ago to an area auto dealership. AutoNation, the Houston dealership, told KHOU.com that the truck was auctioned and was likely traded from owner to owner over the course of three years.

Oberholtzer was surprised the auto dealership sold the truck with the company’s name still on the door.

"They [AutoNation] were supposed to have done it [covered the decals] and it looks like they didn't do it," he said.

AutoNation did not immediately return a phone call from Fox News.

Oberholtzer owned the mom-and-pop plumbing company for 32 years and said his business has received a thousand calls and faxes about the photo.

"A few of the people are really ugly," he told the paper. "I just want it to go away, to tell you the truth."

His son told KHOU.com that the family his hard working and has no ties to terror.

"We have nothing to do with terror at all," Jeff Oberholtzer said.

Read more - 

http://www.galvestondailynews.com/free/article_5f269ed2-8557-11e4-8588-37eb16686b02.html?mode=image&photo=0

Here's What's Wrong With Corporate America, And The U.S. Economy -

Here's What's Wrong With Corporate America, And The U.S. Economy - 

Will we ever tire of navigating the multiple layers of intermediaries between the customer and the provider, while corporate profits soar to unprecedented heights?

If we had to summarize what's wrong with Corporate America and the entire U.S. economy, we can start with all the intermediaries between the provider and the customer. There are a number of examples we're all familiar with.

One is healthcare, where a veritable phalanx of intermediaries filters the interactions between doctors and patients so heavily that the traditional practice of medicine has been nullified.

By traditional I mean the arrangement that was conventional a few short decades ago: you went to the doctor of your choice (typically, the same doctor your family used), he/she treated you, and you paid the doctor's bill in cash. Only hospitalization was covered by the minimal (and minimally limiting) healthcare insurance plans of the time.

The second example is home appliances purchased at a Big Box retailer. Here's the list of interactions between Corporate America and the customer:

1. Customer enters Big Box Store and is sold a high-margin appliance, unless customer insists on the sale item. Either way, the appliance was assembled in China for a few hundred bucks and shipped to the U.S. for a few more bucks. The difference between the low cost and the price the customer pays is gross profit for Corporate America.

2. Customer and salesperson both know the reliability of the appliance, regardless of brand or price, is low, so an extended warranty is an easy sale. The manufacturer's warranty is typically one year, and the extended warranty tacks on a couple years to the minimal manufacturer's warranty.

(Recall that not too long ago in America, any major appliance was expected to last a few decades, not a few years.)

3. Customer shells out $1,000 for the appliance and another $300 for the extended warranty, and a few more bucks for delivery.

4. Corporate America to customer: we're done with you, bucko. The delivery is subcontracted to another company, the extended warranty is handled by another company, and should the appliance fail during the manufacturer's warranty, the customer has to contact the manufacturer directly.

The only interaction retail Corporate America has with the customer is the initial sale. Everything after that is handled by other companies. So Corporate America has no interest in customer satisfaction or happiness after the sales experience.

5. Calls made to Corporate America--the Big Box retailer or the manufacturer--will be directed to somebody else. The job of taking care of the customer has been shunted to intermediaries that the customer cannot contact directly.

Compare this with the traditional arrangement between the retailer and the customer: whatever the problem, the retailer took care of the customer. If the appliance broke down, the retailer's repair crew would go out and fix it. The retailer was accountable to the customer all the way down the line; if there was a warranty covering the repair, the retailer handled that bureaucratic layer as part of their service.

6. The appliance fails two days after the manufacturer's warranty expires, i.e. one year after purchase. (True story.)

7. Customer calls Corporate America retailer. Response: we're done with you, bucko. Call the manufacturer or the extended warranty company.

8. Customer calls Corporate America manufacturer (or the U.S. office of a global appliance manufacturer). Response: Since your appliance is off warranty, the service call will be (insert outrageous fee): $99.99 (that's our special price for good customers, pal.) Parts will also be marked up triple from what you could buy them for on the Internet, and our labor charges are so high that the repair, even if it is modest in scope, will cost a third to a half of the original price of the appliance.

If the repair is serious, the cost might exceed the original purchase price a year earlier.

Stripped of phony solicitude, the manufacturer's response: we're done with you, bucko. You bought our appliance, but we're under no obligation to make you happy beyond the 365-day warranty period--and well, to be honest, we don't really care if you're happy with our service under warranty, either. Our repair people will get to you when they get to you, and there are plenty of loopholes in the warranty.

Here's the view from Corporate America: we can get these appliances assembled in
Robotic Factory #2 (yes, the appliance was stamped with this phrase) in China for an absurdly low cost for an order of thousands of units, and if 10% of those fail within a year due to defective parts, that's just the cost of doing business.

We can grind the customer down with lousy service to the point that many will give up and not even pursue repair or replacement under warranty.

Since Americans have been trained to buy the lowest price, a.k.a. The Tyranny of Price, or the currently fad (over-hyped, overpriced) model, we don't care if they're happy or not. They'll buy the lowest cost appliance or the over-hyped brand next time anyway.

9. Customer calls the extended warranty provider. The extended warranty provider is in a distant state and contracts with a local firm to handle the repair. The customer cannot contact the repair outfit or person directly; everything must be handled through the extended warranty provider.

10. Two weeks later, the repairperson shows up, takes apart the appliance and presents the customer with a bill for $900 which must be paid before he can order parts. But I'm under the extended warranty, the customer says, and the repairperson shrugs. "That's not what the paperwork says." (True story.)

11. Customer calls back extended warranty provider and gets the paperwork straightened out. Boxes of parts start arriving shortly thereafter.

12. A different repairperson comes back in two more weeks, takes a look at the disassembled appliance and the parts that had arrived, and declares the repair will cost more than a new replacement appliance, so the customer should contact the extended warranty provider for a voucher to buy a new appliance.

13. The repairperson leaves the disassembled appliance and the parts. The customer has to call the extended warranty provider again to demand the broken appliance and the new parts be hauled off. Three weeks later, somebody shows up to haul off the useless appliance and the new parts.

14. Customer reads that corporate profits for the Big Box retailer and manufacturer just hit record highs, and has a seizure. Corporate America doesn't make money making the customer happy, beyond the few moments needed to collect $1,300 from him/her. That's how you reap record profits: make the sale and you're done with the customer.

Nobody is tasked with making the customer happy--that's some other intermediary's job. The customer is denied contact with the actual person who ends up with the job of making the customer happy--all communications must go through multiple corporate intermediaries, guaranteeing frustration and wasted time and money.

Will we ever tire of navigating the multiple layers of intermediaries between the customer and the provider, while corporate profits soar to unprecedented heights? The two dynamics are intimately linked: once we book the sale, we're done with customers. 

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-17/heres-whats-wrong-corporate-america-and-us-economy